When does Protractor actually execute tasks? - protractor

Protractor's documentation has a small summary of the control flow, where it says:
WebDriverJS (and thus, Protractor) APIs are entirely asynchronous ... WebDriverJS maintains a queue of pending promises, called the control flow, to keep execution organized
[http://www.protractortest.org/#/control-flow][1]
When does the "queue of pending promises" actually get emptied? i.e., when do the tasks execute? (Where can I get a list of API calls that result in the queue to actually get processed?)

Protractor is built on top of WebdriverJS and you are right their API's are entirely asynchronous and return Promises!
These promises are based on the ControlFlow class which handle the execution of asynchronous tasks. Each task is scheduled via ControlFlow execute() method, which will return a ManagedPromise that will be resolved with the task's result.
For Detailed explanation you should read this WebdriverJS Control Flow API doc

Related

How to ensure the order of user callback function in OpenCL?

I am working on OpenCL implementation wherein the host side particular function has to call every time the clEnqueueReadBuffer is done executing.
I am calling the kernels in a loop. It will look like below in an ordered queue.
clEnqueueNDRangeKernel() -> clEnqueueReadBuffer(&Event) ->
clEnqueueNDRangeKernel() -> clEnqueueReadBuffer(&Event) .......
I have used clSetEventCall() to register Events in each read command to execute a callback function. I have observed that, though the command queue is an in-order queue, the order of the callback function does not execute in-order.
Also, in OpenCL 1.2, it has a mention as below.
The order in which the registered user callback functions are called
is undefined. There is no guarantee that the callback functions
registered for various execution status values for an event will be
called in the exact order that the execution status of a command
changes.
Can anyone give me a solution? I want to execute the callback function in order.
A simple solution could be to subscribe the same callback function to both events. In the callback code, you can check the status of each relevant event and perform the operation you want accordingly.
Note that on some implementations, the driver will batch multiple commands for execution.
The immediate effect is that that multiple events will be signaled "at once" even though the associated commands complete at a different time.
// event1 & event2 are likely to be signaled at once:
clEnqueueNDRangeKernel();
clEnqueueReadBuffer(&event1);
clEnqueueNDRangeKernel();
clEnqueueReadBuffer(&event2);
Wheres:
// event1 is likely to be signaled before event2:
clEnqueueNDRangeKernel();
clEnqueueReadBuffer(&event1);
clflush(queue);
clEnqueueNDRangeKernel();
clEnqueueReadBuffer(&event2);
clflush(queue);
I would also check on which exact thread the callbacks are invoked.
Is it the same thread each time? or a different one? If the implementation opens a new thread for this task, it might be wiser to open a single thread yourself and wait for events in the order that you wish.

SCALA: Is it possible to prepare a regression suite(integration tests) for Restful API's with scalatest

I am writing a regression suite for API's using SCALATEST, I am kind of stuck-up with following scenario:
For instance I have two tests:
test-1{
Call for API-1
Call for API-2
Call for API-3
}
test-2{
Call for API-5
Call for API-6
Call for API-7
}
I have created a generalized function to Call API's I have setup separate JSON files for URI, method, body and headers.
Now my question is that as all these calls will be async, and will be getting back Future Results, one way to handle I know is flatmap / or For within one Test.
But what about 2nd Test, do I need to block main thread here or there is some smart solution for this. I can't afford to run multiple cases in parallel due to inter-dependencies on resources they will be using.
It's better for your tests be executed sequentially, for this please refer to the scalatest user guide on how to deal with Futures
Play will also provide you some utils to handle a Future, the usage is described in the testing documentation

protractor: what is the relationship between the control flow and javascript event loop?

I'm having a difficult time trying to understand how the control flow in protractor work in relation to how JS event loop works. Here is what I know so far:
Protractor control flow stores commands that return promises in a queue. The first command will be at the front of the queue and the last command will be at the back. No command will be executed until the command in front of it has its promise resolved.
JS event loop stores asynchronous task (callbacks to be specific). Callbacks are not executed until all functions in the stack have completed and the stack is empty. Before running each callback, there is a check on whether the stack is empty or not.
so lets take this code for example. The code is basically clicking a search button and a api request is made. Then after data is returned, it checks whether the field that stores the returned data exists.
elem('#searchButton').click(); //will execute a api call to retrieve data
browser.wait(ExpectedConditions.presenceOf(elem('#resultDataField'),3000));
expect(elem('#resultDataField').isPresent()).toBeTruthy();
So with this code, I'm able to get it to work. But I don't know how it does it. How is the event loop applied in this scenario?
The core of the ControlFlow implementation is in runEventLoop_ (in Selenium's promise.js implementation).
As I understand it, the ControlFlow registers a call to runEventLoop_ with the JS event loop (e.g., with a 0-second timeout or somesuch). The call to runEventLoop_ can be thought of as a single iteration of a normal event loop. It registers code to actually run a scheduled task (i.e., actually do the work you queued up during your it). Once that task completes or fails (e.g., by hooking its async promise callbacks) the next iteration of runEventLoop_ is scheduled (see the calls to scheduleEventLoop in runEventLoop_).
There is some complexity when a callback ends up registering new promises (those need to be "inserted" before the old next event, this is accomplished by creating a "nested" control flow. Mostly you should never have to know this.)

jBPM signal event does always complete work item

I've implemented a custom workitemhandler which I want to complete only by an external REST call. Therefore the items executeWorkItem() method does NOT call manager.completeWorkItem(workItem.getId(), results); at the end, which is perfectly ok. I've also assigned a signal event to this workitem in my process, which is also called by an external REST call. Both things work as expected, but what I do not understand is that every time I signal the work item, it also automatically completes the work item, which leads to the problem that the process continuous with its regular path AND the signaled one. But the reason for the signal is to interrupt the process to follow ONLY the signaled path path.
The process image to this can be found here http://cl.ly/image/0F3L3E2w2l0j. In this example I signaled the "Fail Transfer" but the rest gets also executed even nothing completed the workitem.
I'm using jBPM 6.1 Final.
Thanks in advance for any help.
Nevermind, I found the reason for this behavior. The custom work item handler implemented
public void abortWorkItem(WorkItem workItem, WorkItemManager manager) {
manager.abortWorkItem(workItem.getId());
}
After removing manager.abortWorkItem(workItem.getId());, the process behaves as expected.

What is the difference between hook and callback?

By reading some text, especially the iOS document about delegate, all the protocol method are called hook that the custom delegate object need to implement. But some other books, name these hook as callback, what is the difference between them? Are they just different name but the same mechanism? In addition to Obj-C, some other programming languages, such as C, also got the hook, same situation with Obj-C?
The terminology here is a bit fuzzy. In general the two attempt to achieve similar results.
In general, a callback is a function (or delegate) that you register with the API to be called at the appropriate time in the flow of processing (e.g to notify you that the processing is at a certain stage)
A hook traditionally means something a bit more general that serves the purpose of modifying calls to the API (e.g. modify the passed parameters, monitor the called functions). In this meaning it is usually much lower level than what can be achieved by higher-level languages like Java.
In the context of iOS, the word hook means the exact same thing as callback above
Let me chime in with a Javascript answer. In Javascript, callbacks, hooks and events are all used. In this order, they are each higher level concepts than the other.
Unfortunately, they are often used improperly which leads to confusion.
Callbacks
From a control flow perspective, a callback is a function, usually given as an argument, that you execute before returning from your function.
This is usually used in asynchoronous situations when you need to wait for I/O (e.g. HTTP request, a file read, a database query etc.). You don't want to wait with a synchronous while loop, so other functions can be executed in the meantime.
When you get your data, you (permanently) relinquish control and call the callback with the result.
function myFunc(someArg, callback) {
// ...
callback(error, result);
}
Because the callback function may be some code that hasn't been executed yet, and you don't know what's above your function in the call stack, generally instead of throwing errors you pass on the error to the callback as an argument. There are error-first and result-first callback conventions.
Mostly callbacks have been replaced by Promises in the Javascript world and since ES2017+, you can natively use async/await to get rid of callback-rich spaghetti code and make asynchronous control flow look like it was synchronous.
Sometimes, in special cascading control flows you run callbacks in the middle of the function. E.g. in Koa (web server) middleware or Redux middleware you run next() which returns after all the other middlewares in the stack have been run.
Hooks
Hooks are not really a well-defined term, but in Javascript practice, you provide hooks when you want a client (API/library user, child classes etc.) to take optional actions at well-defined points in your control flow.
So a hook may be some function (given as e.g. an argument or a class method) that you call at a certain point e.g. during a database update:
data = beforeUpdate(data);
// ...update
afterUpdate(result);
Usually the point is that:
Hooks can be optional
Hooks usually are waited for i.e. they are there to modify some data
There is at most one function called per hook (contrary to events)
React makes use of hooks in its Hooks API, and they - quoting their definition - "are functions that let you “hook into” React state and lifecycle features", i.e. they let you change React state and also run custom functions each time when certain parts of the state change.
Events
In Javascript, events are emitted at certain points in time, and clients can subscribe to them. The functions that are called when an event happens are called listeners - or for added confusion, callbacks. I prefer to shun the term "callback" for this, and use the term "listener" instead.
This is also a generic OOP pattern.
In front-end there's a DOM interface for events, in node.js you have the EventEmitter interface. A sophisticated asynchronous version is implemented in ReactiveX.
Properties of events:
There may be multiple listeners/callbacks subscribed (to be executed) for the same event.
They usually don't receive a callback, only some event information and are run synchronously
Generally, and unlike hooks, they are not for modifying data inside the event emitter's control flow. The emitter doesn't care 'if there is anybody listening'. It just calls the listeners with the event data and then continues right away.
Examples: events happen when a data stream starts or ends, a user clicks on a button or modifies an input field.
The two term are very similar and are sometimes used interchangably. A hook is an option in a library were the user code can link a function to change the behavior of the library. The library function need not run concurrent with the user code; as in a destructor.
A callback is a specific type of hook where the user code is going to initiate the library call, usually an I/O call or GUI call, which gives contol over to the kernel or GUI subsystem. The controlling process then 'calls back' the user code on an interupt or signal so the user code can supply the handler.
Historically, I've seen hook used for interupt handlers and callback used for GUI event handlers. I also see hook used when the routine is to be static linked and callback used in dynamic code.
Two great answers already, but I wanted to throw in one more piece of evidence the terms "hook" and "callback" are the same, and can be used interchangeably: FreeRTOS favors the term "hook" but recognizes "callback" as an equivalent term, when they say:
The idle task can optionally call an application defined hook (or callback) function - the idle hook.
The tick interrupt can optionally call an application defined hook (or callback) function - the tick hook.
The memory allocation schemes implemented by heap_1.c, heap_2.c, heap_3.c, heap_4.c and heap_5.c can optionally include a malloc() failure hook (or callback) function that can be configured to get called if pvPortMalloc() ever returns NULL.
Source: https://www.freertos.org/a00016.html